The audience falls silent, the curtain is drawn, and there she is, on the stage, in the spotlight: Forschungszentrum proudly presents Sophia Mbugua, the winner of our journalistic scholarship! At the End of April we had 42 interesting applications – and believe me, it was real hard work finding the best candidate for the job. In the end it was Sophia who was one step ahead.

Please allow me to give you some information on our winner: Sophia is 36 years old and lives in Nairobi, Kenya. She is an independent multimedia science journalist covering agriculture, environment, biodiversity, climate change and energy in Sub-Saharan Africa – “a region often laden by tons of stereotypes, and negative coverage”, as she wrote in a text presenting her as a cross-border-reporting-fellow in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. She’s a journalist with a scientific background, who for example worked for the African Group of Negotiators Chair during COP 22 in Marrakesh – and she is a journalist who has a dream: “My hope is to tell the world of the unbiased African narrative and educate the masses through journalism, of the magical Africa.”

Sophia will come to Jülich in July. We are eager to welcome her at Forschungszentrum Jülich and to learn more about her and her dream. Sophia: the stage is yours!

About Erhard Zeiss

Erhard Zeiss has been writer and editor in our press office since 2008. He is the team’s expert for topics in the field of environmental research, for instance soil or climate research. In his private life he likes to travel a lot but until now never had the opportunity to go to Africa…